“My amendment would take out these provisions, and give us in the Congress an opportunity to take a hard look at the needs of our counterterrorism professionals, and respond in a measured way that reflects the input of those who are actually fighting our enemies,” Udall said on the Senate floor. “The secretary of Defense is warning us that we may be making mistakes that will hurt our capacity to fight terrorism at home and abroad.”

Despite the language exempting U.S. citizens from the military custody requirement, Udall said he also fears the language could apply to U.S. citizens in a way that represents an “unprecedented threat to our constitutional liberties.”

The Obama administration said in a Nov. 17 news release that it opposes the detainee language in the bill, and cast its provisions as an effort to constrain the administration’s abilities to handle detainees as it sees fit.

“The Administration strongly objects to the military custody provision of section 1032, which would appear to mandate military custody for a certain class of terrorism suspects,” the White House said in the release. “This unnecessary, untested, and legally controversial restriction of the President’s authority to defend the Nation from terrorist threats would tie the hands of our intelligence and law enforcement professionals.”

But Graham in particular argued that the issue is less about tying the administration’s hands, and more about ensuring that enemy combatants are treated as such, and not as typical criminals. Graham spent several minutes arguing that the provision in the bill is meant to prevent what he said was a preference in the Obama administration to subject these combatants to criminal courts in the United States.

“That’s exactly what you want, and that will destroy our ability to make us safe,” Graham said of those who support Udall’s amendment. “You should not require this country to criminalize what is an act of war against the people of the United States.”

Graham also said this treatment should be given to U.S. citizens as well, but again, only after it is shown that they have chosen to become enemy combatants.

“If you’re an American citizen and you betray your country, you’re going to be held in military custody and you’re going to be questioned about what you know,” he said, “and you’re not going to be given a lawyer if our national security interests dictate that you not be given a lawyer and go into the criminal justice system, because we’re not fighting a crime, we’re fighting a war.”